


The Changeling

by Palefire73



Series: Loki Origins [34]
Category: Frigga - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Thor - Fandom, Tyr - Fandom, odin - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Magic, Peril, kidnap, norse gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-26 12:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14402481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: The Princes are growing up and wanting to go out and adventure, but Frigga is concerned for Loki's safety. Swallowing her fears, she allows Thor and Tyr to take him along one day, but things go quite wrong.





	1. Temptation

One of the most important things a child can learn is the ability to withstand temptation, but it is such a difficult thing to have to do. Think about it. If you were presented with the offer of having the thing you coveted the most, right there in front of you, with no immediately apparent consequences, _what would you do_? As your writer for this story, I can freely admit that I would give my very soul to have Loki’s undying attention and the ability to write freely without inhibition or struggle. Can you truly say without _any_ doubt that there is nothing at all that could tempt you in a similar fashion?

 

For children, there are no other things to take into consideration when temptation crosses their path. They are not plagued by problems such as keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table; that is the privilege their parents hold. Temptation for children is crystal clear in its cut: _do you want this_? Unfortunately, there are some people who know this… and they use it to their advantage, with terrible consequence for the victims and their families, and they do it all over the Nine, including the realm of Asgard. They are the dangerous shadows we are warned about in tales we are told just before we go to sleep; they are the monsters under our beds.

 

Of course, parents do their utmost to try to keep these threats away from their children for as long as they can and are, for the most part, successful; going on to raise the protected ones to adulthood and eventually to go through it all again with their grandchildren. Ever since the day that her wandering attention had led to Loki’s ingestion of Asgardian Greenbell and his subsequent illness, Frigga had found this natural protectiveness increase to a point where it was almost becoming unhealthy in its character and, rather unfortunately, her attitude was rubbing off on Thor. Although they spent long periods of the day apart because of their various duties and appointments, both Queen Frigga and the young Prince Thor would find ways to check up on Loki. The tutors responsible for the youngest Royal’s lessons were in receipt of more messages these days requesting news of Loki’s progress or even just to ensure he was in attendance. Loki was not aware of this heightened interest in his whereabouts and well-being, of course, but it gave his family the reassurance they needed following the near-tragedy. One positive aspect of all of this was that Thor and Tyr spent more time with Loki out of schooling hours as his play companions and, of course, the little boy was enormously happy at being taken out on “big boy” adventures!

 

One particular day, which was about six months after Loki’s illness and Thor’s subsequent experience in the healing room, the three Princes were “adventuring” in the woods that ran along one of the banks of the large lake that lay to the rear of the palace. Tyr and Thor were getting very familiar with the geography of the area, having been taken there on walks by their parents and having gone on to play there often, and Loki was starting to recognise a few of the paths and streams as well as other landmarks. They had decided on a game of hide and seek, with the simple rule that no one was allowed to hide too far away; they had to be able to see the “it” person from their secret place. In this way, the game was not too difficult and they ran very little risk of any of them going astray. Loki had taken a few goes to get the hang of the game; apparently giggling very loudly as one was about to be discovered was not the done thing when hiding, but the little boy could not help it and had to try really hard to stay as quiet as possible. It would not be entirely unfair to say that Thor and Tyr purposefully “missed” the edge of Loki’s cloak where it poked out from behind a tree and became a little deaf to the stifled noises he made as he became excited at the thought of being found. What neither of the elder boys could know, however, was that Loki knew exactly where they had hidden each time and was playing his own game of deliberately not finding them straight away too. Their big boot prints and the tiny snapped twigs and blades of grass were very obvious tracks to the youngster. In this way, a truly fun morning was had and the three of them were chattering about it as they made their way back to the Palace for lunch.

 

“Please can we come back and play more after we have eaten?” Loki’s small hand slipped into Thor’s bigger one as they picked their way along the rough path, avoiding tree roots and soggy leaves floating in muddy puddles.

“Do you love the game that much, Brother?” Thor smiled as he helped Loki climb over a moss-covered fallen log. Tyr turned around and held his hands out for Thor to lift Loki up and into, and the future God of Justice swung the four year old up and onto his shoulders for a ride.

“Yes!” Laughed Loki, “I love it! Please say we can come back… or go somewhere else?” He grabbed hold of the shoulders of Tyr’s cloak, “Faster, horsey! _Faster!_ ”

 

Tyr let out a neigh as they emerged from the woodland and broke into a trot across the lawns that led to the Palace. The boys were greeted on the terrace by their mother, who made them go down to the lake shore, where they quickly washed their hands and faces before being allowed to sit on a large blanket with her and Odin to have an outdoor lunch. Loki regaled their parents with tall tales about the morning’s activities, inviting a lot of raised eyebrows and laughter, and it was not long before he had wolfed down his food. Gulping the last of his Asgardian Apple juice down, he wiped his mouth across the back of his sleeve, eliciting a stern look from Frigga, and asked, “Please can we go back to play in the woods?!"

 

“Have you not had enough of that this morning, my son?” Asked Frigga, “I thought you might like to come to the library with me for a while?”

“Oh, I would like very much to do that, but can we not do that when the weather is bad?” Loki’s beautiful blue eyes travelled around the group, full of hope that someone would say yes.

“Well…” Odin stroked his beard and flashed a questioning look at Thor, who nodded and looked at Frigga, who also indicated her assent. “If you boys want to explore your beautiful home, then so be it. Just be home well before dark.”

 

Loki jumped up and ran to Odin, hugging him tightly about his neck and resting his cheek against the golden curls of the All Father’s impressive beard.

“Oh, thank you Fadir!” He said happily and Odin placed a large arm around him.

“You are most welcome, my son! Now, Thor, Tyr, I believe you have some games to play, places to explore!”

 

Frigga and Odin watched as the trio of Asgardian Princes ran off towards the trees and as their eyes met, Odin nodded reassuringly.

 

“Do not fret, my beautiful Queen,” he said, noticing the slight worry in her expression, “He is in good company for learning how to do things boys love to do and they know to stay away from that wretched plant. The gardeners went out there and got rid of as much of it as they could anyway. Come; let us enjoy a rare afternoon alone together!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Frigga actually had good reason to be worried about watching her boys go off for the second time that day and it was not what Odin had assumed. While attending some of the social events for the ladies of the Palace recently, Frigga had heard the whisperings of rumours concerning children going missing. When she had confronted Odin about it a couple of weeks ago, he had brushed it aside, claiming that they were over-exaggerated and that most of the children – _most?_ Frigga had asked incredulously – involved were from simple folk living in the outskirts who had not taught them how to look after themselves away from home. They were “victims of their families’ ignorance” he had announced imperiously, going on to reassure her that there was no foul play involved, only unfortunate accidents. He refused to go into detail as to what his Captain’s investigation had uncovered, insisting that it was unnecessary and that it would only upset her. Yet she could not shake this from her mind as Loki, Thor and Tyr ducked under the boughs of the distant trees and disappeared from her sight; the consumption of Greenbell was the least of her worries.

 

“Let us go this way!” Called Thor, pointing up what looked like a very precarious goat’s path, which wound away through the trees up a very steep slope. “It looks like it will have lots of hiding places!” Before Tyr could say anything, the inquisitive Prince started off up the path, dragging Loki behind him by the hand. Tyr sighed and quickly looked around to keep his bearings before following them. It took quite a long time to get to a spot where the path levelled off enough to widen into a decent stretch where there were closely growing trees with dense undergrowth around them. Large rocks, which seemed to have tumbled down from a sheer cliff just about visible through the huge trunks, were plentiful enough to provide hiding places, and so Thor called a halt and announced that this would be their playground. He pointed to a particularly bedraggled-looking giant fir tree, “That is the furthest we can go in that direction.” he said and turned to look the other way, “And that rock is the furthest that way, do you understand, Loki?”

“Yes Thor. Can we play now? Can I be ‘It’?”

 

Thor grinned, “Very well. Count to ten with your eyes closed and then call out.”

 

Loki placed his hands over his eyes and began to count out slowly while Thor and Tyr quickly found somewhere to hide, and so he did not see what happened in those twenty seconds while he was carefully enunciating each number. He lowered his hands and opened his eyes to look for the telltale signs of the tracks the Princes usually unwittingly made as they blundered heavily through the woodland vegetation, but there was nothing. For a moment, he was surprised, but then he decided that it would be more fun to play this game with no clues as to where they were, so he called out “Here I come to find you! Nothing but the best hiding place will do!” and began to search for them, never for one minute wondering why there were no tracks at all. After about three or four minutes, however, his young mind began to become concerned: where were they? He should have seen or heard something by now; the area in which they were playing was not that big, after all. With worry growing into a tight knot in his chest, Loki became so engrossed in peering into the undergrowth and behind rocks that, when he heard Thor’s snort of laughter a few feet away, relief flooded him and he ran towards his elder brother to call out “found you!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Tyr struggled as hard as he could, but he simply could not move and the more he tried, the tighter the bonds became. He could hardly breathe through the thick leaves covering his face and the tough tendrils that had snaked so quickly up from the ground were squeezing him so tight that his hands and feet were starting to go numb. Yet his instinct was to struggle, to wriggle, to try to break free. Through a tiny gap in the leaves that had also closed his mouth tight, he could see Loki searching for him and he willed the little boy to turn back down the path, to go home and to get help, but to no avail. _Where is Thor?_ his desperate mind asked as the world turned grey, and it was the last thing he thought before passing out.

 

He could not have known it, but Thor was going through the exact same experience only ten feet away, struggling and yet becoming more tightly bound, unable to call out, unable to wave or to signal Loki in any way. Even though he was the infant God of Thunder, his powers were so new to him that he had not even had chance to think of trying to use them and the last thing he saw before he, too, passed out, was Loki looking up at the hooded stranger who took his hand and led him into the undergrowth towards the cliff face.


	2. Trepidation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki realises, far too late, that he has made a terrible mistake. Meanwhile, the news of his disappearance reaches the Palace...

“Why are we going there?” Asked Loki. He was not completely sure about this, but the Norn had promised to show him things that would answer the questions he had wanted to ask when Frigga had taken him to the Well of Urd and she had said Thor and Tyr were already there. Loki so desperately wanted to know what had happened to Thor properly and so he had grabbed hold of her hand so she could show him the hidden pathway. Only a tiny fraction of his excited young mind was bothered by thoughts of Odin and Frigga disapproving of this, but he did not want to miss out on Tyr and Thor’s adventure, so he had decided to come along.

 

“Do you want to see your bother’s new power in all its glory, little one?”

 

The temptation was too much to ignore. As Loki was led by what he thought was one of the Norns into an opening in the cliff face, he had no idea that the two Princes were in dire trouble back outside where they had been playing only a few minutes before. And because the magical talents of the Gnole* currently leading him away were so strong, Loki was simply unable to see through it to what lay beneath the glamour resembling Skuld. By the time they had entered a crack in the cliff which promptly closed behind them, Thor and Tyr were unconscious and no trace of Loki or his kidnapper was left behind. However, this was the very thing which saved their lives. The plants they had been trapped in were thigmonastic** and had tightened only because the boys had struggled when first becoming entangled in their vines. Once they had fallen unconscious, the plants had relaxed their hold and had reacted to other things, the vines completely moving away from them. After around half an hour, consciousness slowly returned and it was not long before they had found each other and made sure everything was all right. Yet one thing was missing: Loki.

 

“I saw someone taking him!” exclaimed Thor, “Yet, why is no one here? Did Heimdallr not witness any of this?” He looked around in fear and anger, and Tyr was slightly taken aback as he noticed an aura building around him.

 

“Brother…” He held his hands out in front of him in a placating gesture and Thor looked at him in puzzlement. Tyr stepped back, “Brother, you… you’re… are you well?” he faltered.

 

Thor took a deep breath. He had felt that surge of energy and he could sense the charge building as his concern grew. He made an effort to remain calm, but Loki was gone and they had to find him, but _why was no one here_? It must have been some time since the stranger had taken Loki, and what was it that had trapped them? Suddenly worried that it would happen again, he glanced at his feet and he saw Tyr doing the same, “Those plants… those, those vines! What were they?”

“Thor, I think we need to go back to the Palace and alert Móðir and Fadir…”

“No! We can get him! They went to that cliff…”

“Thor, we cannot risk our selves in this way! We must get help!” Tyr stood tall and gave his younger brother a stern look; untrained powers were of no consequence in this important moment, it was common sense and experience that should dictate their next move. “What if we become caught again? What if we are taken too? Then no one will come.”

“I still cannot understand why there is no one!” Exclaimed Thor, and then suddenly his face crumpled into sadness and Tyr saw how scared he was. Forgetting their disagreement, he took hold of his younger brother in a strong embrace so that he would not bear witness to the tears that the younger Prince seemed so ashamed of.

“Come, Thor. Let us be swift in our return to the Palace and then we can come back and help with the search. Time is of the essence…” he stood back and beckoned, “There is strength in numbers.” He added, and Thor nodded reluctantly. The two Princes set off at a fair pace down the path they had followed to get here, each hoping against hope that they would not return too late.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Now, it might seem that Loki had accepted a few things that don’t sit right with us as older readers. Why had Thor’s voice led to a Norn? Why were there no signs of his brothers having made off to hide? And why would he simply wander off with a Norn into a cave without asking if Thor and Tyr could come along? However, we must remember he was only four years of age, he was still high on the emotions that being allowed to play out with his older brothers had caused and the meeting with the Norn, although some time ago, had had a profound effect on his young mind. So, when he entered the crack in the cliff face, he thought he was being taken to the Well of Urd by Skuld and his lack of life experience meant that nothing occurred to him that would warn him that there was something wrong.

 

As the sides of the crack closed behind them, an impenetrable dark fell about them and it was then that Loki felt a pang of uncertainty. Yet slowly, a dim red light started to appear and his eyes managed to pick out small details of his surroundings, which seemed to be a vast empty space over to his right and a solid rock wall to his left – probably where they had come from.

“Where are we?” His small voice piped up, “Where is Yggdrasil? I cannot see her and she is the way to the Well!”

“We are not going to the Well.” Said ‘Skuld’ and as she did so, her voice quickly changed from a feminine giant voice to a low growl. Loki’s head whipped round as he looked up at the person who had brought him here, and a small squeak of fear escaped him. Gone was the kindly Norn and in her place was something else altogether. Its face was mostly hidden within its voluminous black hood, but he could make out that there were blood red eyes set into a pointed face, and they glowed with an ominous light, the light that was not quite illuminating the space in which they stood. His stomach suddenly felt hollow and his knees became weak. _This had been a mistake_! He tried to pull his hand away, but the grip of the stranger grew tighter and the bones of his fingers protested as they were squeezed together.

“ _Ahhh!_ You are _hurting_ me!”

“ _Silence_!” Snarled the horrible creature and began to drag him along. It seemed it could see in this dreadful darkness, as it moved along surefootedly even as he stumbled over strewn stones and slipped into hidden ruts. He managed to just about see that they were approaching a rough wall in the living rock, into which had been carved five archways. Without hesitation, he was pulled unceremoniously into the second from the right and the gloom deteriorated into complete darkness, causing Loki to trip and almost fall, except that his captor wrenched him upright with a painful yank to his shoulder. Having been scared into silence by the appearance and nasty shout, soundless sobs escaped him and trails of invisible tears ran down the little boy’s cheeks as despair overtook him. The cold, damp tunnel swallowed them both up and the red light faded from the cavernous space they had just left.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Calm down, Thor, your words make no sense!” Frigga knelt in front of the distraught Prince and rubbed his shoulders comfortingly. Something had gone terribly wrong while the boys were playing out and her worst fears had been realised, but she needed to know exactly why Tyr and Thor had returned only moments ago without her youngest son, Loki. The panic rising in her breast and the devastated tears would have to wait; she needed to steel her heart in order to solve this. Odin stood behind her and, in turn, placed his hand on hers in a reassuring gesture.

 

“My son, take a breath and clear your mind. You will help us more if you are able to tell us exactly what happened.” Odin came forward and placed a hand on Thor’s head gently, watching as the young Prince struggled with his tears. Thor raised his clear blue eyes, red rimmed from crying and looked at his father, and the loving smile set in a face of stoicism and calm gave him the strength to form the words.

 

“We were playing hide and seek… in a different place and Loki was ‘it’, then Tyr and I went to hide and got tangled in evil vines that squeezed and squeezed! It was horrible! I could not move… I could not breathe!” The memory of it all caused Thor to burst into fresh frightened tears and Tyr stepped forward to help.

“I, too, was caught up, but I was able to see a little of what happened… we both did. Loki was taken.”

“Taken?!” Frigga’s voice betrayed her shock and she turned to look at Odin, fear spreading now like a wildfire throughout her, “Odin…?”

 

Odin nodded, “Can you take us to this place?” He asked, and the boys both nodded. Odin signalled one of his Captains. “Gather half a dozen of the Einherjar and meet with us at the terraces in five minutes!” He took hold of Thor’s hand and then crossed to Tyr, where he took his hand too. Looking at them both with a stern expression he nodded at them grimly. “No one gets left behind. I understand why you came home to tell us of this and it was the right thing to do. But now we go to retrieve our kin.”

 

Frigga came up to them with a look of resolve on her worried face, “I will come too.” She said, and the Royal Family set off to get back their lost Prince.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was a horrible place, where Loki was taken. The darkness was so oppressive, only relieved here and there by what looked like strange glowing stones that gave off a sickly grey light. Yet perhaps the worst thing was the noises that came out of that darkness. They were only low noises, but they whispered of despair and suffering and they crowded Loki’s ears in the otherwise silent tunnels he was being led down. His young imagination began to create all manner of terrible things and he could hardly hold back his frightened sobs. Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime, his captor brought him out into a larger space which had a lot more of the light-emitting stones around it and with a sinking feeling, Loki took in the scene before him.

 

There were dozens of children there. In a large cavernous space formed out of a natural void in the rock, some sort of a place had been created where each child had a chair, a table and a small cot in which to sleep. Yet each child had a metal shackle about one of their ankles which was fixed to a chain secured to a large peg in the centre of their little circle of existence. Ranging from what looked to be about Loki’s age of four up to mid-teens, each of them was dressed in whatever they had been wearing when they had come here, and it was very obvious from the grubby appearance of some of them that they had been here for some time. A couple of the children looked up at Loki’s arrival, but many more did not, simply sitting slumped at their table, or curled up on their cot.

 

Loki was dragged over to one of these spaces and, to his horror, the stranger clasped one of those same shackles closed about his left ankle, before shuffling off into the darkness, leaving the poor little boy wondering what would happen next. Once the stranger had gone, a hiss from the nearest child caught Loki’s attention.

“You there! Boy! Can you hear me?”

Loki turned and nodded through his frightened tears.

“You must never look directly at him. You must never speak to him unless he specifically asks you to. You must only nod to confirm you will obey and then do what it is he has asked of you. That is the best way to avoid punishment or getting taken to the oubliettes. You passed them on your way down here. Do you understand?”

Loki was dumbfounded; only an hour ago he had been giggling with Thor and Tyr out in the sunshine and begging to be ‘it’ in their game of hide and seek. Now he was a million miles from there, in the dark, with no clue as to what had befallen him.

“Did you hear me? Do you understand? It will save you a lot of trouble!”

Loki nodded and slumped onto his allocated chair despondently, hugging his arms around him and wondering how in Hel he would ever escape. _Please M_ ** _óðir_** , a desperate thought escaped him, _please!_ And as those words flew off into the darkness, the four year old Loki began to cry.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The party of rescuers made their way through the woods to the place where Thor and Tyr had diverged from the known footpaths and had made their way up the steep rough track to where they had decided to play. As everyone emerged into the relatively flat area, Tyr pointed out the large scruffy fir tree that had been one boundary and then the rock which had been the other.

 

“Loki stood here and counted while we went off to hide, but take care! There are vines which tangle you up and won’t let go!” He pointed to where he had gone to hide, while Thor showed Odin where he had gone. One of the Einherjar tentatively pointed his boot at a clump of vegetation and drew it back quickly as the tendrils immediately reacted to his presence and began to curl around the end of it.

 

“Asgardian Snarlweed.” Said Frigga, joining them. "It is only found in dank places in thick forest near…” she pointed further through the trees, “the bottom of escarpments and cliffs where damp conditions exist. It thrives on the nutrients from rotting matter and it reacts to movement, but quickly tires if its victim is large or resistant. Thor and Tyr were very lucky to get away from it.” She peered around and nodded as she spotted tracks leading away towards the cliff, but she did not need the obvious signs of footprints in the mud or broken vegetation to show her where Loki had been led away. His sign was everywhere: faint blue sparkling motes of Seidr were floating around and had settled here and there, and there was a trail of it heading straight for the rocky outcrop. It twisted and turned, avoiding any nefarious plants such as the Snarlweed and as they arrived at the cliff face, not a single person had been caught up in it.

 

“A dead end.” Grumbled Odin, who could not see Loki’s trail, “We must look elsewhere.”

“No Odin!” said Frigga, grasping his sleeve, “We are in the right place, but you must allow me to…” she stopped mid-sentence and the All Father looked at her concernedly.

 

_Please, Móðir, Please!_

“… oh! Loki!” Frigga’s hands flew to her mouth and then she began to search the impenetrable face of the rock desperately, “He is here! He is here, I tell you!” her fingers scrabbled at the rough granite as she tried to find something, anything that would open the cliff up and allow them access, “He is _here!_ ”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*a creature that lurks inside trees and watches from holes bored into the trunks. First mentioned in “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles” 1912 Lord Dunsany.

**sensitive to touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is going on?  
> What will happen to our little Prince?  
> Will Frigga and Odin find a way to rescue him?
> 
> Stay tuned..... ;)


	3. Transmission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While his parents are trying to locate him, Loki discovers what is going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gets a little bit upsetting in that children are undergoing distressing experiences. However, in keeping with roughly the BBFC guidelines, this is still suitable for the audiences old enough to be allowed onto AO3. If you're here underage, you read potentially at your own peril. I don't usually put a warning on, but this is a generally rated story, so I have to put it out there as your concerned author. Palefire73 x

Some creatures are the virtual clone of their parents and look the same, act the same, even live out their lives in the same manner; pre-programmed and following a pre-determined path. Then, at the other end of the spectrum are the anomalies. The mutations, those who may even be cast out for their differences and end up leading a life quite different to that which may have been first expected.

 

Our “stranger” was one such creature that had never belonged. Created a Gnole, a creature that would lurk inside trees and observe from within, occasionally to steal out and do unspeakable things to an unfortunate passer-by, ‘he’ had quickly been shown to be something different to the others and it was not long until he decided to leave and to go on travels that started in the Mortal Realm from where he was from and eventually led onto other places, places in between the known worlds… and beyond. Along the way, several things had happened to him and not least was discovering his ability of acquiring talents and gifts from others, albeit usually unfortunates that had died by his hand. Not being altogether comfortable about that part of his heritage, he had managed to acquire a gift whereby the death of the person who had what he wanted was no longer necessary and for the purposes of this story we can quickly say that he had ended up here on Asgard, where he had established his hideout around the same time that Loki had been brought to the ruling realm from Jotúnheimr.

 

Being of a secretive race, and having acquired many abilities that we, as mortals, would perhaps call “powers”, the Gnole had discovered the natural caverns and tunnels in the rocky cliffs bordering on the woods near the Palace and had taken up home there. Unfortunately, some of the “magical” ability he had lent him an element of invisibility to Heimdallr’s sight, and so he had remained undiscovered, left alone to carry on what had become an insatiable pursuit of gathering yet more of these various powers. Being a realm imbued with properties that enhanced magical beings, Asgard had more than its fair share of inhabitants that could do things that mortals would find out of the ordinary and it quickly became apparent to the Gnole that he had hit the jackpot. His mission had become clear: gain as much power and as many abilities as he could, and then go back to Earth to show his brethren just what he was now made of. He would make them sorry for how they had treated him and brought about his exile!

 

At first, the Gnole had only preyed upon one or two people who had happened to stray too close to his hideout, knocking them unconscious with a quick incantation learned from a Mage who lived on a black moon on the far side of Mars, and drawing an element of their ability from them using the gift he had been infected with from the Succubus he had managed to kill in Rome as it had been preying upon a hapless farmhand. The first three years or so here on Asgard had been spent that way and he had gained about half a dozen new gifts this way. The “victim” would wake from their unconscious state far away from the cliff face unharmed, apart from feeling drained and discovering that they could no longer wield their particular aspect of Seidr in quite the same way. Yet this eventually stopped satisfying the Gnole. As he became more powerful and as Asgard’s natural enhancing properties began to strengthen every aspect of his talents, he began to want more. The euphoria he felt as a new power entered him was addictive – and more so here. He began to actively search the Seidr wielders out.

 

It turned out that children were the best ones to draw powers from: they held the raw and untamed version, which held greater vitality and potential for the Gnole. They also fully recovered from being drained, something the adults had never quite seemed to do. It seemed that children were almost a limitless supply of Seidr and it was a drug upon which he quickly became dependant.

 

He began to take them.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Frigga!” Odin stepped forward and placed a restraining hand on his wife’s shoulder, “Frigga, _stop_! The rock is solid. He is not here.” He shrank back as she turned to him and he saw that her eyes were lit with a golden fire. Before he could react, she placed her fingers to his temple and pushed his face so he was looking at the surface of the granite cliff and he could hardly believe what he saw. The rock took on a strange unearthly glow – a human would have likened it to the negative of a photograph – and right in front of him were a series of parallel lines in shimmering blue dust which ended in a tiny handprint… that looked as if it had gone into the very stone. Frigga’s fingers dropped away and the vision vanished. He turned to look at her sheepishly, then motioned to the Einherjar’s Captain, who had come along, “Loki is within. Do we have any intelligence regarding this area? Are there caverns? Tunnels? Mines?”

“I do not know, Sire. I will go to the Palace and enquire at once.”

“Go. _Hurry!_ ” Odin caressed the face of his beautiful Queen, “Frigga…”

“He is here, Odin. We must not fail him.” Determined tears glistened in her eyes and he smiled at her.

“We will not fail him, my love.”

 

Frigga pressed the palms of her hands over what, to her, was a bright pattern of shining blue Seidr, Loki’s Seidr, and concentrated. With all her strength she gathered her thoughts into one short sentence and sent it back along the path that his desperate message had taken to her: “ _Loki, I am here. Stay strong.”_

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

He heard her. He heard her loud and clear, just as he had the time when they had been playing chess and had been reading her mind to try to gain the upper hand. But he could not stay strong. He could not bear witness to any more of what was going on in that awful space, knowing that it would be his turn soon.

 

The creature had not stayed away long. Only about five minutes after depositing Loki in his allocated space, it had returned and had approached a boy close by. The boy had been curled up on his cot, but when he saw the Gnole coming to him, he had cowered into a tighter ball, shaking his head frantically. It did not stop the Gnole, however, and as Loki had watched on in some sort of hypnotic fascination, he had seen just what was happening to these children. A gnarled hand appeared from out of the Gnole’s voluminous hooded robe to land gently on the cheek of the boy, who had grown instantly still and was staring up at the creature, and then it happened. A faint “ghost” stood up out of and moved away from the boy, as if it was some sort of transmission of energy from him. It was identical to him, but it shone with a violet hue and it was clothed in a robe covered with magical runes. Its eyes glowed vibrant purple and Loki could see that it also held some sort of sceptre with a powerful looking crystal set in the end. Was it some sort of Mage? The boy slumped back on his cot, unconscious and the Gnole straightened up and held the same hand out to the purple hued ghostly copy, which seemed to float towards him until they touched. Then it merged into the Gnole, who threw his hands upwards and let out some strange groan of ecstasy. A few moments later, he lowered his hands and drew his robe back around him. Checking the boy was breathing, he shuffled off back through a dark doorway while Loki’s horrified eyes followed him.

 

“Hey! Boy! Do not stare! He can see you, even in this dark. He will come for you, too, you know. He will come for you.” The boy gave him a strange look, “Do I know you? You seem familiar. What is your skill, anyway? That is all he wants. He wants to take our gifts for himself.”

 

Loki sat on his cot and drew his knees up protectively; “I cannot do anything.” he whispered and closed his eyes, wishing all of this was just a bad dream.

“You must be able to do something. It is how he chooses us. Where are you from? Which part of Asgard do you live in? I am sure I know you.”

“I am no one.” Mumbled Loki, “I was simply playing with my brothers and then she came and promised me I would see amazing things…” his voice tailed off as his lip trembled and he buried his face in his arms, hiding his tears.

“Well, you must be able to do something he wants. It is why you are here.”

 

There was a sound and Loki peeped out through his fingers, only to see that the creature had returned. This time it went over to an older looking girl, but what happened was the same. The same hand lightly touched her cheek as she stared up at him, completely motionless. This time, a teal coloured ghostly image emerged from the girl and stood to the side. This one was shimmering in and out of view and was very difficult to keep track of visually, almost as if it was covered in some sort of camouflage, and the Gnole experienced the same state of bliss as it merged with him. Afterwards, when he had gone again, Loki summoned up the courage to ask a question.

 

“How often does he do that?”

“What? Extract our Seidr? Well, it depends, because some of us recover more quickly than others. That boy from before… the purple one… he will not go back to him for a long time. That was raw Seidr he drew out of him. He should have been a powerful Seidr wielder that boy.”

“What is your skill?” Blurted Loki. He needed a voice in the dimly lit space to hold on to. To know there was someone else here with whom he could have communication went a small way to comforting him, even in this awful place.

“Tell me yours first…”

 

Yet, there was no time to even start to talk. Even though it was only about half an hour since the creature had left the girl, he was back again and this time he came to the boy who had been talking to Loki. The young Prince scuffled back on his cot and hugged his knees tightly in fear, but he found he could not keep his eyes off what was happening. From this short distance, he could actually see the Gnole in the dim light; its face was humanoid and pointed, with those dark red eyes set deep under a furred brow, but as it locked them on the boy, something unexpected happened. It changed appearance. The furred features blurred for a moment before coalescing into a face that was similar to the boy, only older. Loki glanced at the boy to see that he had relaxed and was staring deep into the eyes of … his older self? His father, possibly? While Loki was trying to process this, a red ghostly figure emerged from the boy and stood beside him. It was in the form of a powerfully built warrior bearing a huge war axe and wearing impressive armour. The Gnole absorbed this spectre as the boy collapsed onto his cot and then it was gone.

 

 _It is a changeling_ realised Loki. Of course it was… had it not been Skuld who lured him here with false promises? Yet, how did it know what to look like to tempt and to entrance its victims? Something the boy had said… It absorbed powers! Perhaps someone in its past had been able to read minds and the creature had managed to get that power from them! What else must it be able to do? Loki’s mind began to work overtime and then he remembered something which now lifted his spirits enormously. Something which made him think he might just be able to get through this after all. His mother’s voice telling him something important:

 

_Loki. I am here. Stay strong._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argh!! It grew a few more paragraphs, so I'm publishing this chapter in honour of the release of Infinity War. NO SPOILERS, please!


	4. Transmutation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You knew it was coming, but knowing is not the same as experiencing.
> 
> It is Loki's turn...

Odin turned away from the news he had just been given and was unable to contain his disappointment. “We have no records of this place, apparently. They were destroyed in a fire the library suffered a few centuries ago.” he sighed, “Yet they could not have disappeared into solid rock. This must only be a wall of sorts. If we can summon enough energy, we can break it!” He began to pace up and down as he thought about the problem, and then his gaze settled on his sons, who were sitting to one side feeling quite helpless about the whole situation. They were both clearly upset by what had happened, yet each was reacting to it in a different way to the other: Tyr was brooding, but it was obvious he was giving it much thought. Odin had quickly discovered the boy’s propensity towards measured consideration when he was younger, and together with Frigga’s foreknowledge of certain things, the All Father had known for some time that he was destined to be not only a master of arms at war, but a true justice-bringer. Thor, on the other hand, was stewing inwardly about what he thought was his inability to look after his younger sibling. With the general air of worry, one could be forgiven for thinking that everyone was in somewhat of a bad mood, but Odin knew full well that the oppressive atmosphere that was building was a direct result of Thor’s inner power. He made up his mind.

 

Frigga saw Odin going over to his sons to talk to them and smiled, assuming that he was comforting them while they thought of a way to get through the stone barrier and rescue Loki. She was searching out with her mind, but it was exhausting and she did not want to risk her health. Yet she had managed to find the faint trail of Loki’s Seidr stretching off into the depths of the cliff through what she had sensed to be a labyrinthine set of tunnels formed naturally by water over the millennia. Deciding it was worth it, if only to bring comfort to Loki, she gathered her strength in order to send him another few words to let him know they were trying to get to him, but she was interrupted by two things.

 

Firstly, in her mind, she caught the faint whisperings of Loki’s inner voice: _I love you Móðir_!

 

Secondly, just as her heart swelled with hope for him, she noticed movement from where Odin and the boys were, and her eyes widened with surprise. However, they quickly narrowed with disapproval, but she knew it was already too late to do anything and one look from Odin told her to stay out of things this time. He was standing next to Tyr, and they were both somehow enhanced in their appearance, as if they had taken on their full aspect as two of the highest ranking Gods of the realm – clearly some sort of Seidr influence from Odin. Yet they could not completely hide what was behind them and they slowly moved apart to reveal Thor.

 

The middle Prince of Asgard was growing up to be a tall and fairly muscular warrior, but he was still only a ten-year old. At this moment, however, he looked anything but a boy; his stature seemed enhanced somehow, as if he had grown suddenly overnight. His boyish features were hardened and Frigga was a little taken aback by his appearance. He came forward a few steps and she could see now that Odin was talking to him, pitched in a voice only Thor could hear and, as he spoke, Thor only grew more focussed, raising his hands in an almost benedictory way before clenching his fists tightly. He looked up to the skies and Frigga, along with many of the others gathered there, followed his gaze to see the gathering storm. Steely grey clouds were building and the day grew dim as charge built in the air around them. Frigga’s instinct was to call out and stop this, but she knew it would be to no avail; Odin had Thor’s ear and he was prompting him, guiding him through this. It was what he had wanted for a long time, ever since the display of Thor’s fledgling power back when Loki had been poorly, and now it seemed he was determined to help Thor give it full reign to see what they could achieve. Resigning herself to being a spectator of the first deliberate use of her son’s powers, Frigga moved back away from the face of the cliff and watched with baited breath as the first sparks began to crackle forth from Thor’s hands.

 

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From its small dark chamber located just off the larger space where he kept his special children captive, the Gnole peered through the dimness at his newest acquisition. He had been foraging in the woods when he had first seen Loki, and had been disappointed when he had gone away with the other two older boys, for he could see that all three of them were sources of great power. He had continued to gather the woodland greens which he used to feed his prisoners and had returned to them wondering what he had missed out on. Yet, his sensitive hearing had picked up the noise of their return later in the day and he had gone straight to the entrance of the old mine he had taken on as his home to see if there was any chance of taking one of them.

 

As soon as he had opened the magically concealed entrance to see what was happening, he had spotted one of them pointing at the broken old fir tree and that is when he had got a proper look at the smallest of the three boys. _Oh, there is something special about you!_ he had thought to himself as he had seen the blue swirling aura around the one they seemed to call Loki. He had sent out very gentle yet tenacious thoughts, and in his excitement at playing with his brothers, Loki had not felt a thing. However, the Gnole had divined from the Young Prince’s mind the visit with the Norns and the special feelings Loki had for one of them in particular, and had altered his appearance to match hers. Then, watching impassively as the older boys both managed to conveniently blunder into patches of Snarlweed and become trapped, he had approached this ‘Loki’ and had easily tempted him astray. The power radiating off one so young had intoxicated the Gnole, but it had tried to resist taking it too soon, drawing only from a few of the children it had held for a while instead. However, he found his resistance wearing down and as he now watched the little boy rocking gently on his cot, he felt the last barrier of resolve crumble away. He had to taste the power of this one too! Once he had whatever skills Loki held inside, he would be more than ready to return home to where he had come from and make those that had thrown him out and rejected him from the family fold sorry for what they had done. The humans would be freed from the evil lurking in the woods in that small corner of Ireland, because the native Gnoles’ exiled kin would eradicate them before coming back here to Asgard to live out his life up in the wilder woods on the Mountain. He would free these children to go back to their families once he no longer needed to draw from them and he would fade away into contented obscurity. Once he had taken his revenge, there would be no need to keep taking their Seidr any longer.

 

The boy was scared when the Gnole first arrived at his cot; in fact, he was terrified. But the face that came to his mind’s eye for comfort was clear enough and the Gnole took on its aspect, just as he did with all the other faces he had read in the minds of the children here. As Frigga’s features masked his own, the Gnole also started to employ his telepathic powers of hypnotic thoughts, confident that Loki would fall into a trance and leave his mind wide open for him to plunder. And, at first it worked. The Gnole peered into the Pandora’s Box of Delights that was Loki’s inner psyche and became drunk on the sheer power he saw there. The vast array of talents and variants of Seidr within that four year old head was almost limitless and it was the Gnole which became hypnotised by the temptation in front of him. Swirling golden strands of infant yet strong mind-reading magic entwined blue shimmering telekinetic abilities. Multicoloured puffs of linguistic Seidr billowed about, drawing him in with their intensity. It was like nothing he had ever seen before and he became giddy with the anticipation of gaining all of this for himself. Slowly, he reached out with his mind for the most tempting one of all… longevity.

 

And that is where it all went wrong.

 

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“You are the conduit, Thor. Feel Asgard’s power, feel the charge building and harness it! That rock is all that stands between you and your brother. Break it down before it is too late!” Odin’s silver-tongued whisperings crawled into Thor’s mind and preyed upon his guilt at losing Loki and the sorrow and anger built faster, reaching a crescendo of sadness and rage inside him. Even the All Father stepped back a little as the electric arcs began to dance all over him, not just from his fingertips, but from his eyes too. The young Prince turned to face the cliff and he levelled his burning gaze at the point where they believed the entrance to be. Energy surged through him and the giant thundercloud that had gathered above them suddenly burst, soaking everyone with fat droplets of hard-hitting rain. All except Thor, who now brought his hands around to point at the granite which was preventing him from getting to his brother. His body suddenly went rigid and an intense pain began to spread through him to the point of agony. His feet were rooted to the spot and his back felt like a rod of unyielding Dwarven Iron, almost as if he was no longer in control at all. His mouth opened to emit a harsh scream of anguish and Frigga had to be held back by two Einherjar as her instinct was to go to him to relieve his suffering. She turned eyes full of resentment to Odin, who merely looked away to observe his son and struggled against her captors but to no avail. As everyone continued to watch the power build inside Thor, she wailed in horror as his skin began to blister on his hands. The white light at his fingertips and in his eyes grew brighter and brighter as if he was filled with the light of Yggdrasil herself and many had to turn away from the intensity.

 

_How could Odin allow this to continue!_

 

Then, just as Thor felt he was going to die and Frigga was considering attempting to use her Seidr to get to him, giant arcs of blue-white electrical charge shot from his hands and leapt to the face of the cliff, blasting it to smithereens and catapulting rock everywhere. He, along with anyone who was within fifty feet of him, was blown off his feet by the force of the blast and the noise of it rumbled away echoing through the whole of Asgard. The surging grey thunderclouds were vapourised and the day shone brightly once more in the aftermath as silence fell.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Loki knew, somehow, what was going on, but that knowledge was faint and far away, as if it was calling out to him from a distant island in a vast sea. The vision of his mother before him far outweighed the warning sirens that were going off like alarm bells in his mind; she had come to rescue him after all! She smiled at him and touched his cheek lovingly, and the four year old felt a relief so profound that he dropped all the guards he had ever been taught to keep around him. But then he felt a strange sensation, as if someone was rummaging around in his head as if it was a box of brightly coloured buttons. He winced and blinked, and then he saw that something was not quite right after all. Even though the person in front of him looked like his mother, there were no golden sparkles surrounding her, no sign of her Seidr. Just as he began to wonder what was wrong, he felt the movement in his head again and he shook it irritably, trying to get rid of the feeling.

 

The Gnole knew that the little boy would not stay under his spell for long; he was too powerful even at this tender age. He sent out his mind and roughly grabbed the strand of the Seidr he coveted the most and pulled sharply, intending to have it before the link between them failed. Triumphantly, he began to wind it in towards him, and the strand emerged from all the others, as if it was a brightly coloured thread in a sewing basket full of materials. But as he pulled, the other Seidr types began to fade from view and blue sparkling dust motes began to swirl around in the space haphazardly, causing him to lose concentration. The blue sparkles quickly changed to green and then to gold, before taking on an orange hue like the fires of Muspelheimr and it was at this point that they coalesced into a face, causing the Gnole to back off a little in shock.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

_What was this intrusion?!_

_Who dared to pluck and to rummage around in this young yet perfectly attuned mind?_

 

The being that lay at the very centre of Loki’s self stared out from its haven, a haven that had been created at the very moment when he had been given corporeal form. Something was invading that haven now, and attempting to remove some of the very fabric of it, an action that would cause it to unravel and break down into the Chaos from which the central identity had originated. This Gnole, in its ignorance, would break down the complicated symbiosis that Loki was made up of and he would be irretrievably lost if that was allowed to happen. The Chaos Spirit centred its gaze upon this creature, which was also a Chimera of sorts. It could see all the different elements that the Gnole had absorbed into itself to create the thing it had become now, but that did not mean it intended to allow the thing to take a part from Loki too! Sensing that the consciousness that usually controlled this body – the part that called itself Loki – was under some sort of enchantment and unable to get away from this disgusting leech, Chaos took over. It stared deep into the mind of the Gnole and reached its own mind out, a mind so ancient and powerful that the Gnole had no chance against it.

 

Rather than taking Loki’s Sedir for his own, the poor creature realised, far too late, that it was about to lose everything. Those Muspelheimian fires bored into the depths of his soul, and he could do absolutely nothing as, one by one, every single skill he had taken from all those victims was stolen away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Darn it! I got it finished, but then I read it and saw all the massive gaping holes. By the time I filled them in, I got another chapter, which just shows you what the right sort of prompt can do to a writer - thanks Leselille!!!
> 
> So, it awoke our little Prince's inner "monster" and who knows where that will lead? And what of Thor? 
> 
> Oh, I love nothing more than a good old fashioned cliff-hanger ;)


	5. Testification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did it work? Did they manage to get there in time and, if they did, who was it in time for?  
> Who actually needed to be rescued, after all?

It was a devastated cry from Frigga that broke that silence. Having sheltered behind a tree to avoid the flying shards of stone, she came forward to see what had happened and saw the gaping hole in the cliff which revealed the tunnel she had sensed. It looked like the entrance to some sort of mine rather than natural water channels, but it was undoubtedly the way they had gone. Then her attention was quickly grabbed by the figure lying prone in the rubble, that of her ten year old son… and he was not moving. “No!” She cried and ran over to him, skidding in the dirt as she fell to her knees to look at him, her hands hovering over him and her eyes frantically searching for a sign of life. His chest rose ever so slightly, but even this small miracle was not enough to prevent her tears and her screams for help: Thor had suffered incredible burns to his upper body and the way he was lying on the ground suggested he had broken one of his arms. There was a blur of activity as the Einherjar surrounded her and a scuffle broke out as she tried to stop them touching him. Odin came to help and she screamed out her devastation at him, crashing her small fists against his chest as she poured out her anger at what he had made his son do. It took Tyr’s arrival to calm her down enough to allow a party to be quickly assembled of two Einherjar to carry the unconscious Prince back to the Palace with his mother and brother accompanying them.

 

Odin watched as Frigga left to take Thor to the healing rooms at the Palace and then he turned back to the gaping maw of the former mine where Loki was being held captive. He hesitated, wondering if he should simply consign Loki to his fate, but then motioned to the remaining Einherjar to join him. He would rescue the youngster, but only because he could not cause his Queen any more suffering at his hand today.

 

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Dozens of shocked and frightened eyes witnessed the extraction of the stolen Seidr from the Gnole in that cavern deep within the mountain. All of the children had cowered beside their cots or chairs, unable to escape because of their chains, but mesmerised by the awful sight. The Gnole was bent backwards at an angle that should have caused him to fall over, but the force of the stream of magic being pulled from him was keeping him upright. The little boy who had only arrived hours ago was standing on his cot looking down at the face of the Gnole, whose mouth was wide open in a silent scream. The multi-coloured strands of Seidr were issuing from the dark maw and swirling around the head of Loki before entwining in a beautiful braid which shone as brightly as the rainbow bridge. This braid split again as it reached his splayed fingers and each strand broke into billions of tiny sparkling particles which were being absorbed by each chubby digit.

 

None of the other children could quite understand how Loki’s face had changed during this amazing reversal of the Gnole’s practise of stealing Sedir: gone was the brown haired four year old with blue eyes, to be replaced by something that the eye could not quite settle on. The features were rendered in orange flame which looked almost like molten gold and they shifted continuously, as if they were not meant to have a true corporeal form. Yet this strange being was taking the Gnole’s skills away one by one, just as he had drawn them from his victims – some of them over and over again – and none of the children held a shred of sympathy for him. Several things happened as the Gnole tried at first to resist what was happening: he tried to trick his tormentor by casting clones of himself about the space to try to distract it, but each of them withered away as the Spirit quickly saw what a prize that skill was and took it away. He transmogrified several times, but this, too, only meant it was the next ability to be taken. Rather than making the torture stop, this display of what he had to offer only intensified the experience of having these powers stripped away as the greedy and excitable Spirit snatched them all.

 

Finally, it was over. What had only taken a few minutes had felt like an eternity to the Gnole and he fell to the floor, utterly defeated. As he landed, a distant boom rocked the place and a shower of tiny stones and dust came from the roof of the cavern. The children scuttled under cots and chairs, covering their ears against the deafening noise and wondering what in Hel’s name was going on. The boy Loki seemed to regain his normal appearance shortly after and he looked around in a daze as the Chaotic Spirit withdrew deep into the centre of him again, its purpose having been served. He watched as the Gnole, who looked as if he had suffered a terrible beating, struggled to his feet and gave him a fearful look and he frowned. _What had happened?_

 

It seemed not all of the Gnole’s abilities had gone – he had been left with the few he had naturally had before he learned how to steal others away. Looking around at the children, who were now standing up again and looking at him, he waved a hand and all of the shackles broke open and fell from their ankles. Another flick of his wrist caused the lights to momentarily dim and when they came back up to the low light they had afforded, he had vanished. Loki looked around, wondering where he had gone, and quickly spotted him in a far corner staring at him in terror, clearly hoping he would not recognise him. For the Gnole had shape-shifted into the aspect of a child and was cowering against the wall. Loki sent him a thought and the Gnole nodded imperceptibly. As Odin and the Einherjar emerged into the cavern with bright torches and found Loki with children who had been reported missing over months of devastation and heartache in this part of Asgard, the Gnole took his place amongst them to be ‘rescued’. They were led out past the oubliettes, from which another four or five children were rescued from their terrible situation and as they were all brought into the bright sunshine, no one noticed just one child slip away into the dense forest, where he passes from this tale into obscurity. He had escaped with his life upon a promise to a Spirit of Pure Chaos that he would go back to whence he had come and never plague the children of Asgard ever again.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The recovery of the children and their subsequent return to parents who had thought them lost forever went a long way to shielding Odin from Frigga’s displeasure. While the King of Asgard went about identifying the children, making sure they were suffering from no long lasting ill effects and that they were returned to the right families, she spent her time in the healing room with Thor, allowing no one access without her presence. The state he had been in when he had been brought here what was now nearly a month ago had shocked her to the core. How could Odin have wilfully encouraged him to wield his raw power without knowing what the consequences were?  He had, of course, come to see if his son was comfortable and getting better, and he had tried to make amends with Frigga, but she was not ready to forgive him so easily; if she did, how long would it be before Odin decided to test him out again? It had taken great care and attention and a few days being kept in a coma in a Soul Forge to get Thor to the point where Frigga would allow his brothers to visit; before then, the burns were too severe and nasty looking, not to mention excruciatingly painful. Even now, a month later, on the day that Thor was being discharged from the convalescence wing, there were a few marks as a reminder of what he had undergone. They would fade with time because of his developing healing powers, but Frigga only saw them as a mark of her King’s neglectful action.

 

Then there was his attitude towards Loki’s experience: he hardly showed any concern for the child, pooh-poohing the reports of his nightmares and claiming he would soon see it as “an experience through which he had grown”. Frigga wanted to tell him about the other effects that the contact with the creature that had “stolen the Seidr” from those poor children had had upon Loki, but she now felt that she could not, and it became yet another secret between them. Odin was a reasonably fair King, but he was starting to show more signs of favouritism towards Tyr and Thor over Loki lately, and this was just another one of them. The trouble was that it meant Frigga was keeping things from him regarding the little Jotúnnheimian hostage because she was worried that he would either dismiss them and use them to belittle Loki, or start to become distrustful of him, which was perhaps worse.

 

The mine was blocked by shifting all the boulders and rocks into the entrance and several searches to the area came back empty-handed, suggesting that the perpetrator of these crimes was long gone. Eventually vines and saplings would grow there and obscure the entrance forever, removing that particular location from people’s memories and consigning it to the history of Asgard once more. The Princes were still permitted to play in the woods on the understanding that they would not stray from their well-trodden paths, nor touch any plants that they were not familiar with. It was so nice to see them venture out together only a few weeks after the experience and they, too, eventually allowed it to slip from memory in favour of happier experiences. Thor’s burns completely faded and Odin resigned himself to the fact that he would have to have an exceptionally good reason to test his powers the next time; perhaps he needed to take advice on having special lessons designed for the Prince to allow him to learn to harness and control it. He made up his mind to do so and of course he approached his Queen first about it. To his surprise, she agreed, and they spent many hours with various tutors coming up with ideas.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

About three months after Thor had recovered, things seemed to be back to the normal daily routine and all the Princes were due to move up to the next year in their schooling. Loki’s move was extra special as he had to start wearing clothes that were a bit more formal and he was quite excited about being fitted for a new jacket at the tailors one particular morning. He stood very still while he was measured; he was more than happy with the fabric he was allowed to choose from in order to be in keeping with the general look of the school’s uniform and he was especially giddy over being taken for an ice cream on the terraces beside the lake while they waited for the jacket to be made.

 

“It will take a couple of hours.” The Tailor had said, and so Loki and Frigga took a stroll in the afternoon sunshine with their ice creams, talking about how grown up he would look in his new uniform and swapping a taste of each other’s treat.

“You have grown taller since your last fitting, my son.” Said Frigga.

“I know!” replied Loki, “I am four inches taller than this time last year. I am growing up to become a man like Tyr and Thor!” He licked at his ice cream and skipped along by Frigga’s side.

“One day you will be taller than me, Loki. Will you look after your mother when you are a man? When you are a ruling Prince of the Realm?”

“Of course, Móðir,” laughed Loki, but then he stopped and turned to her with a serious look on his face. “I will _always_ look after you, Móðir, just as you look after me. I will not allow any harm to befall you.”

“Oh, Loki…” Smiled Frigga and she stroked his young cheek, “You will make a fine man indeed. Now, shall we go to see if your jacket is ready?”

“Yes,” Loki nodded and they set off to the tailors.

 

When they got there, they were happy to find out that the jacket was ready and Loki slipped his arms into it while the tailor held it out. The buttons were done up and then Frigga and the Tailor both stood back to look.

“Turn around Loki, so that we can see.” Said Frigga and the little Prince complied. He was wriggling around, trying to look at the jacket, holding his arms out and craning to look behind him, but he could not see properly and became a little annoyed.

 

“I wish to see how it looks on me!” He eventually exclaimed in frustration, “I wish to check if it is how I imagined.”

 

Frigga glanced at the Tailor, who said he would go to fetch a mirror from the fitting room next door. The Queen accompanied him to hold the doors open and Loki was left alone to wait. However, he was four and four year olds can be fairly impatient when it comes to matters such as these. Besides, he already knew how to check without a mirror; the Gnole back in the mine had shown him when he was his prisoner. Unwilling to wait for the mirror to arrive, which seemed to be taking much longer than necessary any way, Loki simply waved his hand and stepped out of himself. Leaving a copy of himself standing on the small box used to raise him up while being fitted, he stepped down and walked around it to examine the jacket. He was not entirely happy with the buttons; they were plain gold and he had asked for a design on them, so he touched each one to emboss it with the outline of a galloping horse, and then stood back to have a proper look. The jacket was finely made, even in such a short two hours, and he knew he would feel very grown up in it when he went to school, like a true Prince of Asgard.

 

The Tailor was quite surprised to find the mirror was missing from the other fitting room and he apologised to his Queen.

“I will fetch another from the stockroom, Your Highness,” he said, bowing slightly from the waist, “I will be only a moment.”

“Very well, I will wait with Loki in that case.” replied Frigga, and they went their separate ways. And as Frigga entered Loki’s fitting room she realised that it was most fortunate that the mirror had not been there after all, for she would not have wanted any one to witness what she saw. Just as she lifted the privacy curtain, Loki’s head whipped round to look at her standing there with the shock plain to see on her face as she saw him merge back with his clone.

 

“Am I in trouble, Móðir?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much, LeseLille, for the spark of an idea that created this story!
> 
> I hope I managed to make our Gnole a sympathetic character in the end. Although what he had done was wrong, he was a victim of his own Origins and the temptation to take revenge was what had driven him to do these unspeakable acts. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone else who has been so kind enough to read along - I hope this much longer than usual "Origins" tale was enjoyable. I certainly think it has allowed me to weave those strands that go through "my" Loki's life a little tighter, reinforcing the notions I have about Him.
> 
> Until the next one,  
> Laterz, Loki fans!  
> Palefire73  
> x

**Author's Note:**

> LeseLille was kind enough to let me use their prompt as suggested in the comments under "The Flag Bearer".  
> As I started to write what I thought would be an interesting little story to add to this series, it quickly grew out of control and will have more than one part. I hope I am doing the idea justice so far!
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeseLille/pseuds/LeseLille  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13490229


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